Now 301/4, Adrian's still worrying: Can he be a good father? Is Viagra cheating? Why won't the BBC produce 'The White Van', his serial killer comedy?

Will he find the fulfilment he seeks as celebrity offal chef, single parent and celibate novelist? Is there a place for Adrian Mole in Blair's Brave New Britain?

It is 1 May 1997. Now a celebrity chef at Hoi Polloi restaurant, Soho (and still an unpublished novelist), Mole has returned to the Midlands to cast his vote for the ravishing and Chanel-suited Labour Party candidate, Dr Pandora Braithwaite, the love of his young life.

Back in Leicester, everyone in the Mole household expects Tony Blair's election to bring them wealth, fulfilment and personal happiness. For 17 Wisteria Walk is a seething mass of late twentieth-century angst:

Pauline Mole. Mother, 53, feels she has wasted her life; no letters after her name and only a 'Mrs' in front of it. Would an extramarital affair with Ivan Braithwaite (55, ripe for the cull) lift her millennial gloom?

George Mole. Father, 50, out of a job, plagued by piles but scared of the operation. Also having a problem with his erectile function. Is finding it difficult to get out of bed to vote.